Procedure for obtaining corsets reinforced with elastic cellular materials



Sept. 4, 1962 J. M. M. REMIRO 3,052,579

PROCEDURE FOR OBTAINING CORSETS REINFORCED WITH ELASTIC CELLULAR MATERIALS Filed Dec. 24, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN V EN TOR.

Sept. 4, 1962 J. M. M. REMIRO 3,052,579

PROCEDURE FOR OBTAINING CoRsETs REINFORCED WITH ELASTIC CELLULAR MATERIALS Filed Dec. 24, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTQR. Joseflalmflawsallemzro PROCEDURE FOR OBTAINING CORSETS RE- INFORCED WITH ELASTIC CELLULAR MA- TERIALS Jose Maria Mass Rerniro, 3 Conseio de Ciento St.,

Barcelona, Spain Filed Dec. 24, 1959, Ser. No. 861,939 3 Claims. (Cl. 154-48) This invention refers to a procedure for obtaining corsets reinforced with elastic cellular materials, having thermal insulating qualities of a high order due to the low heat conductibility of air.

The procedure for obtaining cellular material preferentially virgin or synthetic rubber whose two surfaces are reinforced with layers of textile material without sewing of any kind and preferentially consisting of tubular knitted fabric, offering the necessary elasticity for adaptation to the human body.

These corsets are made today from elastic fabric consisting of interwoven rubber and wool yarns, the former constituting the warp and the latter the weft, making use of the high insulating quality of wool fibre, and owing to the rigidity of this latter fibre, its principal utility is that it conserves relatively well the original thickness of the fabric and in consequence thereof, the air cells formed by the spaces left between the different fibres are also conserved; however, this type of corset has the disadvantage that the fabric upon stretching due to the elasticity of the warp threads opens between the weft yarns which are rigid, offering wide spaces for the passage of air, which spaces become more numerous and wider as the corset is used and the wool fibre is more compressed.

Another type of product is that obtained from wool knitted fabric which class of fabric is naturally elastic, by inserting a transverse elastic yarn at every two or three weft yarns in zig-zag form between consecutive wales, so that upon stretching the corset the yarn buried itself in the fabric producing deep canals therein and thus reducing its insulating qualities.

These two forms of corsets offer a great disadvantage in that in both cases the cost of the material is high and as the fabric is cut, it has to bear a seam which is very stiff since the two borders must be doubled over one on the other to avoid the rubber 'yarns becoming detached and be sewn longitudinally in several seams together with a fine back covering to hide this seam which is somewhat ugly, thus converting this zone into a rigid one and depriving the corset within this zone of its elastic qualities and ductility, rendering it uncomfortable, such zone resembling a corset whalebone, and moreover not avoiding with continual use that the rubber yarns become detached thus rendering the corset useless. This detachment of the yarn is provoked more rapidly by cleaning the corset as in this operation some yarns are easily broken.

This invention has for its object the production of a new corset that solves all the aforementioned difiiculties, at the same time obtaining a high thermal insulating quality, while the procedure employed allows manufacture in mass production, at a much lower price than that of any known corset up to the present time.

As already stated, the corset, object of this invention comprises a sheet of cellular elastic material whose two surfaces are respectively solid with layers of knitted textile fabric, in which the high thermal insulating quality is obtained from the multiple air cells of the cellular structure material comprising the sheet spongy natural or synthetic rubber.

The high insulating qualities thus obtained are very superior to those obtained from wool, seeing that the amount of air retained is much greater, no air escapes exist as the spongy sheet is active over the whole of its Patented Sept. 4, 1962 use seeing that this constancy is a function of the rubber sponge, all of which advantages are unobtainable with present day corsets made exclusively of wool fabric which becomes felted with use and so loses its property of retaining the air.

In view therefore of the high insulating value obtainable from sponge rubber, the wool function can be omitted, and more economical fibres such as cotton in finer yarn-s can be used.

In consequence of the construction of this corset, an extraordinary efiiciency and comfort in wearing is obtained as there are no seams of any kind in the axial direction, so that no localised hard zone exists and in consequence loss of yarns or unravelling cannot occur, and more so due to the fact that the interior sponge rubber between the two textile surfaces links up with the wales thus constituting an indivisible interior for the fabric.

Another advantage of this type of corsets is that it does not curl upon stretching, as the fabrics on both sides of the corset cause equal and opposing forces whose resultant is the vertical, a phenomenon that does not occur with woven corsets where one of the surfaces is always subjected to a higher tension thus making curling an easy matter.

The type of corset dealt with here has not been obtainable up to the present, as the vulcanization of natural or synthetic rubber onto iabrics over heated lasts presented the difliculty of the high cost of the moulds and cores with heavy energy consumption due to their thickness, slow manufacturing process due to the heavy weights of same and the difliculty in handling, and what is more, a whole series of different size moulds was necessary, all of which rendered manufacture unrealisable.

Another great difficulty in the use of moulds was the necessary use of pulley blocks to handle the very heavy parts of same which had to be carefully localised, the mould and the core and then held together by some method of precision bolts, all of which operations tended to soil the articles being manufactured, when they should be of course perfectly clean.

These difiiculties have been overcome by using the male portion of the mould made of sheet metal tube of less than one millimeter thickness so that it weighs one hundred times less than a male and female mould, at the same time being easily handled, the fabric itself being used as the female portion of the mould when placed over the rubber, controlling the expansion of this latter by the tension in the knitted fabric which is substantially smaller than the mould in diameter so that it will press uniformly onto the rubber thus equalizing expansion of this latter over the whole of its surface.

The procedure according to the invention consists in the application over the tin plate male mould of dimensions corresponding to the finished corset, of an interior sleeve of elastic fabric, knitted fabric for example, then placing a sleeve of virgin or synthetic cellular structure vu'lcanizable rubber, then placing a similar sleeve of elastic fabric similar to the first applied, over this rubber sleeve, then heating the whole to vulcanizin-g temperature so that the expansion of the vulcanizable material in the formation of the cellular structure is controlled by certain previous radial tension uniformly from the outer textile elastic material when the mould is completely cylindrical.

The form of the last or sheet mould depends exclusively on that of the finished corset required. As will be understood, the sheet iron heats up immediately so that the heat required to arrive at the correct temperature is a minimum; moreover, the construction of the mould is extremely simple and very cheap. As cores are not required, the placing of the materials on the mould is a very easy matter indeed.

As a textile sleeve, a tubular piece of knitted fabric is used for preference, without seams, and of material adequate to the vulcanization temperature, the diameter of this tubular piece being such that when placed onto the mould and doubled over the layer of material to be vulcanised, the doubled part that will form the exterior reinforcement of the corset should apply the exterior pressure or tension necessary to control the expansion of the cellular structure. This pre-tension cannot exceed certain limits so as not to unduly restrict the inherent extensibility of the finished material.

The operation technique described, moreover admits the possibility of producing zones in the vulcanised article with difierent expansions in the cellular structure, so that an article having different thickness at different parts may be produced.

In the event that the exterior knitted reinforcement cannot provide the required pie-tension, another second reinforcement of similar or different material may be applied exteriorly and left in position adhered definitely to the rest of the material, or it may be used exclusively for compressing the cellular material formed in consequence of the vulcanization until said material acquires dimensional stability upon cooling, after which it may be removed.

As will be seen from the foregoing, the colocation of the knitted sleeve or equivalent material represents no difficulty, it being sufficient to slip it over the mould so that all excess hangs over one end of said mould to be later doubled back over the sheet rubber sleeve which has been placed onto the inner fabric sleeve. However, it is possible also to leave the excess overhanging both ends of the mould so that each end is doubled back to cover the corresponding portions. In this manner, the two borders of the corset will be finished similarly, and no rubber interior will be shown when vulcanised.

These two extremes of the outer sleeve may meet end to end and joined by any conventional method, or they may be lapped as much as required, the most preferable joint being a Zig-zag sewn seam which form of sewing allows perfect flexibility for the corset, since the thread upon being stretched takes up a straighter course thus becoming longer at it loses its zig-zag form.

During the vulcanization cycle the vulcanizable material passes through a plastic phase and adheres to the reinforcernents so that the article becomes one whole and indivisible, without any further operation being necessary such as cementation or the like.

In order to better understand the foregoing, two sheets of drawings are included in which one example of realization is given.

FIGURE 1 shows a perspective view of the moment when the knitted fabric sleeve is being placed onto the mould.

FIGURE 2 shows a perspective view the knitted fabric sleeves placed onto the mould, with the excess all at one end of the mould, during the placing of the vulcanizable material in its position.

FIGURE 3 shows a perspective view of the whole at the moment of placing on the outer sleeve.

FIGURE 4 shows the whole article vulcanized and during the separation of same from the mould.

FIGURE 5 shows a corset according to the invention, in which the zig-zag sewing is seen.

FIGURE 6 shows schematically a section of a piece of a corset in which its construction may be seen.

FIGURE 7 is a longitudinal section of the corset.

Referring now to the figures, it will be seen that a knitted tubular fabric 2 is placed onto the tin plate tubular mould 1, the fabric fitting tightly to the mould while the rest of the sleeve 3 is rolled up on one end of the mould, a sheet of vulcanizable material 4 being then placed onto the first fabric sleeve, covering it completely except at the borders, when the border 5 is doubled back over the sheet 4 when the sleeve 3 is immediately rolled out over the rubber sleeve thus forming the outer covermg.

The vulcanization is now made of the whole at the proper temperature so that the vulcanizable sheet 4 expands and becomes spongy, with-in the limits of the exterior female textile mould tension and that of the inner or male portion comprising the tin plate tubular mould with its textile covering, or between 3 and 1, during which vulcanization cycle the rubber passes through a plasticized state when it unites with the two, inner and outer textile coverings making and becoming one whole and indivisible.

As soon as the whole has cooled, the tube 1 is removed as shown in figure 4, the zone 6 at the end of the exterior covering being detached from the zone of union by its superposition on the doubling portion 5 which is then cut off and the two borders 3 and 5 are then sewn in zigzag form 7, thus completing the corset, 8.

The construction of such a corset consists of two exterior layers 9 and .16) between which a wall of cellular material 11 forms one whole with said exterior layers of fabric 9 and ill.

I claim:

1. A method of manufacturing reinforced corsets which includes the steps of applying the forward portion of a sleeve of elastic fabric over a tubular tin plate, applying a layer of vulcanizable rubber material annularly over the sleeve of elastic fabric, radially expanding and folding the rearward portion of the elastic fabric over and on top of the vulcanizable rubber material, and vulcanizing the rubber material.

2. A method of manufacturing reinforced corsets which includes the steps of telescopingly applying a forward portion of a relatively long sleeve of elastic fabric onto a relatively short tubular tin plate, applying a relatively short sheet of vulcanizable rubber material annularly onto the forward portion of the sleeve of elastic fabric covering the tubular tin plate, inversely folding the rearward portion of the elastic fabric sleeve onto the annularly disposed sheet of rubber material so that the forward and rearward portions of the elastic sleeve form an annular inner and outer layer, respectively, for the intermediately disposed annular sheet of rubber, and vulcanizing the rubber material to unite the forward and rearward portions of the elastic sleeve to the rubber layer with the tin plate acting as a male mould and the inversely folded rearward portion of the elastic sleeve forming the outer layer thereby acting as the female mould.

3. A reinforced corset which comprises a sleeve of elastic knitted fabric with one portion forming an inner sleeve, an intermediate sleeve of sponge rubber material, and another portion of the elastic knitted sleeve being expanded and folded over onto the intermediate layer of sponge rubber to form an outer sleeve, with the sponge rubber being vulcanized uniting the inner and outer sleeve portions of the knitted fabric to the rubber, and stitching connecting the remote ends of the inner and outer sleeve portions together.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 386,306 Emerson et a1 July 17, 1888 1,708,059 Grifiiths Apr. 9, 1929 2,263,285 Bolog Nov. 18, 1941 2,845,657 Beare Aug. 5, 1958 

3. A REINFORCED CORSET WHICH COMPRISES A SLEEVE OF ELASTIC KNITTED FABRIC WITH ONE PORTION FORMING AN INNER SLEEVE, AN INTERMEDIATE SLEEVE OF SPONGE RUBBER MATERIAL AND ANOTHER PORTION OF THE ELASTIC KNITTED SLEEVE BEING EXPANDED AND FOLDED OVER ONTO THE INTERMEDIATE LAYER OF SPONGE RUBBER TO FORM AN OUTER SLEEVE, WITH THE SPONGE RUBBER BEING VULANIZED UNITING THE INNER AND OUTER SLEEVE PORTIONS OF THE KNITTED FABRIC TO THE RUBBER, AND STITCHING CONNECTING THE REMOTE ENDS OF THE INNER AND OUTER SLEEVE PORTIONS TOGETHER. 